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| Firewall for cyber cafes |
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By Azlan Othman |
Front page news yesterday! Let me extract a few quotes.
Pg Dato Paduka Hj Ismail also called on managers of cyber cafes to be extra vigilant in making sure that their users get registered in ensuring that the Internet is not abused.
Except that being registered does not neccesarily mean that they won't abuse.
Speaking on cyber cafes which have been told to use a logbook for users, he urged them to install a firewall to ensure that students do not abuse the facility at the cafes.
Funny. Firewalls are usually utilised to keep 'undesirable things' out. Not keep people in. Well, I guess it works differently here.
Hehehe. Sigh. Brunei, Brunei. You can be so cute sometimes. Or maybe I am just extra tolerant today.
Normally I would say "this is sure a naive and traditionally authoritative way of dealing with things".
Or I would say, "I am puzzled because time and time again, we can see how unsuccessful this method is. Banning will only increase the enticing pull factor by 50%."
Then, I might suggest things like, "Why not advocate education? Why not advocate critical minds that are able to appropriate and conduct affordance? Give a man some fish and he will eat tonight. Give him a fishing rod, and teach him how to fish, he won't be hungry forever*!"
Trying to control Internet access is crazy work that will more often than not yield nothing. That is a fact. Perhaps the efforts should be redirected to something more productive?
*= Unless the fishing hole runs out of fish + polluted by toxic waste OR the fishing rod breaks. He will probably also suffer from constipation due to insuficient roughage. But that is besides the point. The point is he is not hungry.
iammaurina 
It would suck to be hungry forever. If you don’t die from it first. 😛
Would it be fair to say that Bruneians don’t care enough about their online privacy? Besides, a lot of countries are starting to do the same thing, under different reasons, such as piracy. If this continues, the essence of the internet as a pool of information and opinions will be soon lost.
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I intended to blog about this as well but until I sort out my domain issues… (temporary housing @ http://www.caveena.com)
The thing that really bugs me about official announcements like this is that they offer generic solutions for generic-defined problems without making any effort to see if the suggested solutions are even feasible. Just about any official announcement, speech and what-have-you make passing remarks with no intention of fully describing what the are going on about. But back to the firewall.
Having cybercafes register users is one way to keep track of online activity. If I go to a cybercafe and use the computer to hack into some government secret files, no one will be able to catch me if there’s no record (or memory) of me ever being in the cybercafe. By registering with, say, my IC, then I’m liable to be held responsible for my actions. Of course, the line drawn between “criminal activity” and “I don’t like what you’re doing online simply because I’m narrow-minded” is very thin and subjective. If I’m doing research on breast cancer are people going to assume that I’m looking at pornography?
Am I the only one worried that students are being singled out? Tsk, tsk, poor students ;P
Actually Maurina, firewalls can also keep things from getting out. Users of Zone Alarm will be familiar with the little pop-up balloon saying something like “Such-and-such program is trying to access the Internet. Allow it to do so?” Restricting Internet access is important especially now that everyone (except Brunei) is worried about Spyware and Adware, programs which are designed to intrude upon our privacy and report back to their HQ.
But will firewalls keep people from using the Internet for immoral purposes? While the article leads you to believe so it’s not so simple. Firewalls may keep things in and out but very often they can’t tell what you are doing online. You could use your web browser to go to Google and do research but you could also just as easily use your browser to view sites on how to make your own bomb. Your average firewall can give your browser access to the Internet but can’t say which sites you are allowed to visit. But as technology improves firewalls are gaining added functionality (think of The Great Firewall of China which is what the Chinese government uses to filter out “unwanted” to prevent their citizens from gaining worrying ideas) but at a price. If you want a firewall to ban content, you’d need more than the in-built firewall in your router: you’d need a stand-alone computer acting as a proxy.
Which brings me back to my point: suggesting firewalls as a “Deus Ex Machina” solution to online immoral activities is weak. It’s possible but probably not cost effective for the average cybercafe. And they’re not full-proof either *koffkoffAnonymousProxyServerskoffkoff*
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the essence of the internet as a pool of information and opinions will be soon lost. —-> WAH!!! SO SAD!!! DON’T LET THAT HAPPEN!
By the way, LSM, I KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO COMMENT ON THIS POST!!! LOL. Miss you just so u know. Hee. I’ve been posting nonsense! Your blog and also Naz’s (which is updated once a year nowadays), has always been my retreat when I run out of blog fodder. 😛
Anyway, YES! WHY ARE STUDENTS THE ONLY ONE SINGLED OUT? Tsk tsk indeed. Ageism! Hehe.
I think it is high time that the higher ups give more credit to the youths. Trust is important. Especially in a population where the youths are a dominant portion of the society.
Basically this article and all the contents in it, is YUCKY YUCKY YUCKY! It portrays immaturity, stupidity, and an insane obsession of wanting to control things which are inevitable. I hate it and nothing major can be gained out if it. IT IS NAIVE, SO KAMPUNG AND NARROW MINDED AND I AM DISAPPOINTED BECAUSE I HAVE YET TO SEE ANY PROGRESS WITH BRUNEI THIS YEAR AND IT IS ALREADY ALMOST MAY!!!!! I AM TIRED OF BEING STAGNANT AND STUCK AND IT IS SAD BECAUSE I AM A BRUNEIAN AND I LOVE MY COUNTRY REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT IT IS OBSESSED WITH RED TAPE AND THERE IS NO BURGER KING BUT I AM BEHIND HER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT BUT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT KEEPS ON SPENDING MONEY ON USELESS THINGS!!!!!!!! PEOPLE OF MY GENERATION ARE GOING TO BE RUNNING THE COUNTRY ONE DAY AND I DO NOT WANT TO CLEAN UP AFTER YOU OLD PEOPLE’S MISTAKES AND IGNORANCE!!!!!!!!! PLEASE JUST FREAKING SLIT MY THROAT!!!!!!!!!!!
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EMOSI JUA AKU! Sorry, got carried away.
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We hope to see your site up-and-running soon, LSM.
Let me try to clarify what government officials have been trying to do: keep “bad websites” out of our cyberspace, and protect the interests of “national security” online. But as LSM mentioned above, there is a very thin line that separates protection from abuse.
I’m also reading the Pengiran Dato’s definition of firewall as more of a proxy, especially when put in context with the cybercafe user registration.
Overall, I’m 50/50 on this. Generally, silencing the critics have always worked well in Asian countries when the top ranks are in capable hands (Singapore with PAP under Lee Kuan Yew, Malaysia with UMNO under Dr. Mahathir Mohamad). Brunei? I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
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